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Thursday, December 29, 2016

WIP - Christmas 2016/Secret Stitching

Hello!

Hope you have all had lovely relaxing Christmas, and I am sorry if some of you are back to work now!

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Today I'm linking to Esther Aliu's WIP - Wednesday. There are some lovely projects over there to visit, do have a look! I've just seen a link to a great tutorial for a binding kit for quilters (see no. 22 Tanya Quilts) although I'm sure it would suit other stitchers too! Oops, sorry, hope you don't mind Esther, I'm a little bit late.

Just before Christmas, my blogging friend .... Mary Anne of Magpie's Mumblings ..... led me to the blog of Ann Wood ..... where Ann was making woebegone pine trees, and Ann very kindly gave a free PDF pattern for the tree! And, as is often the way ..... I just had to make one. Yes, I know its too late for this year, but at least I'll have two little trees ready for next year!

Although, this was a little outside my comfort zone, as using glue, a sharp knife, and branches were involved! Well .... OK ..... only a little outside my comfort zone, I like the idea of making buttons from the pruned branches of the cherry tree in our garden ..... but I have to admit I couldn't make them without DH doing most of the work - I can't use a saw, or burn the holes through the buttons ..... I can polish the buttons to finish them though! Oh, but maybe not for too much longer ..... as sadly the tree died this year! I don't think it's due to oversevere pruning ..... ie button making .... the tree was here over 30 years ago when we moved in! Looking on-line, the life expectancy of an ornamental cherry tree is between 15 and 20 years, depending on local conditions, and we can have some very hard frosts here, so it hasn't done bad!

Very kindly DH scouted round the garden and was able to find suitable twigs and branches for my tree .....

..... but ..... how unusual ..... I have been distracted by another idea!

This one is a little bit secret ..... I'm excited to show ..... and can't resist showing at least one picture!

I aim to have a finish tomorrow ..... gosh, must get stitching!!!!! and hope to show it then!

4 comments:

Looking forward to tomorrow to see the finished Christmas tree and the ????????? What a tease you are LOL. Wishing you all the very very best for 2017 with lots of sewing in between the house chores and family demands Hugs Glenda

Ooh - what fun to see your little tree!! I'm so glad I shared the link. I might have to trespass somewhere to see if I can snag some wood to make one too, although not having tools any more might be a bit of problem. No matter - if I'm in jail for thieving the wood it would be a moot point wouldn't it!

About Me

Hi, I'm Barbara. Welcome to my blog. I live on the edge of the North Downs in Surrey, England, with d.h. and our cute, bossy, chatty lady cat.
This is mostly a stitching blog, but there will be the occasional posts about walks - both country and town.
I hope you will find something you enjoy reading here, and that you will come back and visit me again!